How Do I Use Photoshop? Which Settings Do I Use?

If photography is a subject, post-process is always a must. Most of people don’t like Photoshop, I think that it is one of the most required software and I will try to learn more about it. While it has been argued that the photo is the final of Photoshop, the important thing is to try all of the ways to get the best result.

Firstly, I am using the latest version. For now, I am using Adobe Photoshop CS6. When I started to occupy with photography, there was just CS2. However, I learned how to use Photoshop with CS3. Because of the fact that they share the common base, it is not important to which version you use. Which version I use is one of the frequent questions I get. If you have good computer and system, I suggest that you should use the latest one. Especially as a user that used CS2, the tools such as “Patch Tool” has been developed completely.

In my home, I am using MacOS Mountain Lion but at office I am using Win8. As in general, the graphic and audio editing softwares are faster in MacOS than Windows. If you are occupying with photography seriously, it is advised to prefer Mac, at least you have an Apple monitor that gives the same colors with the printed ones. I have never seen the colors like in Apple monitor.

My Basic Settings in Photoshop

When I set up the Photoshop, I configure it according to those personal settings.

Zoom with scroll wheel:

You can find this option under the General menu that is under Edit / Preferences in Windows and Photoshop / Preferences in Mac. Once you installed the Photoshop, it isn’t selected and if you select this small box, you can zoom in or out to your photo with your mouse scroll. Normally you can do it CTRL and + or CTRL and – combinations but with this shortcut is more useful for sure.

Let Photoshop Use …. MB

You can find this setting from Performance tab in Prefences menu. If you have enough amount of RAM, you can give more to Photoshop for using and allow it to run faster. Of course it depends on your system’s configuration.

Choosing some shortcuts for changing the size of brushes

You can find this settings under the Shortcuts for: Tool that is under Edit / Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows and Edit / Keyboard Shortcuts in MacOS. When you scroll down in this menu, “Decrease Brush Size” and “Increase Brush Size” are used for changing the size of the brush and it is already selected in setup. However those shortcuts are not easy. If you are using Q type Turkish keyboard, you can use Ö and Ç. If you are using English one, you can use M and N. The base of the Photoshop is the selection tools. To use it effectively, you will need those shortcuts more.

There are three main settings that I am using. I can apply those settings like a machine. If you use those settings too, you can use Photoshop faster. It can be boring sometimes but making it faster and funny depends on you.

Finally, I want to say that whatever you want to do in Photoshop, it should be manually. Do not use action or some plugins.